John McCain (R)

John McCain (R)
4th Term Senator from Arizona

Address:
PO Box 16118
Arlington, VA 22215

Website: www.johnmccain.com
Phone: (703) 418-2008

Click Here to download the responses received from Sen. McCain.

Why should farmers and ranchers vote for you?
The continuing success of American agriculture and the health of America’s rural heartland require leadership that understands that productivity and innovation are created by the effort, ingenuity and investment of individual Americans. Our nation’s security depends on the health of American agriculture and I will promote agricultural policies that help America’s farmers and ranchers thrive in the 21st century. As President, I will work to develop all of America’s domestic energy resources, reduce taxes and government regulation, preserve property rights, provide a sustainable, market-driven risk management system for farmers and ranchers, improve incentives to invest in technology and rural infrastructure, reduce trade barriers, secure our borders while providing a fair and practical temporary labor program, and strengthen the American economy by eliminating wasteful government spending.

Statement on Taxes:
I have proposed a comprehensive economic plan that will create millions of good American jobs, ensure our nation's energy security, get the government's budget and spending practices in order, and bring relief to American consumers. Small businesses are critical to job growth, especially in rural America. I am committed to reducing the estate tax rate to 15 percent and permitting a generous $10 million exemption to enable farmers and ranchers to pass along their heritage to the next generation. I will keep the top tax rate at 35 percent, maintain the 15 percent rates on dividends and capital gains, and phase-out the Alternative Minimum Tax. Small businesses are the heart of job growth; raising taxes on them hurts every worker.

Statement on Trade:
A central focus of my agriculture policy is to expand international trade, bringing American products to more foreign markets and boosting the profitability of American farms. I believe that we must uphold our current international commitments, such as NAFTA, while looking for new opportunities, which is why I support ratifying pending trade deals with countries like Colombia, Panama, and South Korea. As President, I will pursue multilateral, regional, and bilateral efforts to reduce trade barriers, level the global playing field, and build effective enforcement of global trading rules. I will provide energetic leadership to get our global trade negotiations back on track. Trade Promotion Authority is essential to making progress towards these important goals.

Statement on Environmental Regulation:
As President I will launch an ambitious research agenda––a 21st Century Green Revolution––to enable farmers and ranchers to make better use of natural resources, cutting costs and making farms more productive, while promoting responsible stewardship of our environment. By developing new agricultural techniques and technologies, we can rejuvenate America’s agricultural industry while conserving our natural resources and combating climate change. In addition, my comprehensive cap-and-trade plan to halt climate change exempts agriculture and small businesses, while providing the agricultural sector the opportunity to develop carbon credits to trade to other sectors subject to the emissions caps. This practical approach ensures the continuing viability of our agriculture industry while cutting greenhouse gas emissions 60 percent by 2050. I will also promote conservation programs that encourage maximum environmental protection of America’s farmlands, which will assist farmers and ranchers in the protection of wildlife and rivers.

Statement on Infrastructure:
I believe that the 65 million Americans who live in America’s rural heartland deserve 21st century services, jobs, education and healthcare. Advances in agriculture, information technology, and business opportunities will allow rural Americans to create their own economic opportunities that are the key to expanding economic prosperity throughout rural America. I support improving the flow of private capital, broadening the availability of technology, supporting the rapid evolution of bio-fuels technology into a sustainable industry and strengthening the infrastructure necessary to deliver the economic output of rural America to the global market. I will work to allow a serious investment in upgrading our national grid to meet the demands of the 21st century. Rural America can play a leading role in generating energy from bio-fuel, bio-mass, geothermal, solar and wind sources, but in order for this energy to reach consumers nationwide, we must improve and advance our grid system. Access to high-speed Internet services facilitates interstate commerce, drives innovation, promotes educational achievements, allows access to health services, and literally has the potential to change lives. As president, I will continue to encourage private investment to facilitate the build-out of infrastructure to provide high-speed Internet connectivity all over America. However, where private industry does not answer the call because of market failures or other obstacles, John McCain believes that people acting through their local governments should be able to invest in their own future by building out infrastructure to provide high-speed Internet services. For this reason, Senator McCain introduced the “Community Broadband Bill,” which would allow local governments to offer such services, particularly when private industry fails to do so.

Statement on Farm Bill & Safety Net:
America needs a risk management program for agriculture that reflects the realities of the global marketplace for food, fuel and fiber in the 21st century. When farmers suffer from a natural disaster such as droughts or floods, we should assist them – this is a commitment we have made to our farmers and I will honor it. I am firmly committed to bringing the agriculture community together to develop a sustainable market-driven system of risk management. Rapidly rising input costs and fluctuating commodity prices threaten the financial stability of American agriculture. The 21st century global agriculture market is too complex for America’s farmers to rely on an outmoded system of pre-determined countercyclical payments that assumes narrow trading bands for these input costs and commodity prices. A market-based system of risk management will furthermore eliminate the influence of special interests on America’s agricultural policy. I will focus agriculture policy on meeting the food, fiber, feed and energy needs of America and the world. As President, I will approach America’s agriculture policy with the goal of ensuring our farm, ranch, timber and commercial fishing industries are competitive in the global marketplace. Consistent with my longstanding position, I will oppose subsidies, which distort markets, artificially raise prices for consumers, and interfere with America’s ability to negotiate with our international trading partners to the detriment of the entire agriculture community.

Statement on Ethanol:
Our nation's future security and prosperity depends on the next President making the hard choices to break our nation's strategic dependence on foreign sources of energy and cut off the flow of oil wealth to repressive dictatorships. I will push our country to make the necessary choices - producing more power, pushing technology such as flex fuel vehicles (FFVs) to help free our transportation sector from its use of foreign oil, cleaning up our air and addressing climate change, and ensuring that Americans have dependable energy sources. Bio-fuel technologies of all types will play an important role in supporting this goal. I do not support the current system of tariffs, subsidies and mandates. Rather, as a country, we must focus on stimulating end-user demand for renewable energy and creating a consistent regulatory and tax framework that encourages investment in research, domestic refining capacity, and distribution systems to promote energy independence.